Bridge Hunt

Bridge Hunt chronicles a young man’s unforgettable quest to discover the 42 revolutionary bridges designed by Robert Maillart, a pioneering Swiss engineer and architectural luminary, between 1899 to 1940. Many of these graceful structures still hide along remote back roads and alpine valleys, while a few iconic landmarks endure in Bern, Geneva, and Zurich.Maillart’s breathtaking Salginatobel Bridge was recently designated as a Swiss heritage site for its national significance. It has also been named an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.This visually rich travelogue presents the only complete published collection of photos and descriptions of all Maillart’s extant European bridges, capturing his unique engineering artistry. It will appeal to civil engineers, architects, and students, as well as travellers, adventure-seekers and anyone fascinated by treasures that unite rather than divide our world.More than a precious record of a unique chapter in infrastructure history, the book is at heart a human story. Through one young man’s eyes, we rediscover Maillart’s timeless bridges, which embody the soaring of imagination transformed into structures that bring people together.

The Steinway That Wouldn't Budge (Confessions of a Piano Tuner)

Peter Tryon's Confessions of a Piano Tuner is a charming, autobiographical tale of life spent travelling around rural East Anglia tuning pianos. But this is also a personal account from boyhood of how music and more specifically the mechanics of that wonderful instrument, fired early imagination and gave rise to a lifelong fascination and involvement with the piano.As much a social commentary on people, the anecdotes about different characters are filled with humour and the text is light and easy to read. The unspoiled beauty and charm of East Anglia provides a perfect backdrop to Peter Tryon's account, all combining together to make this a book that you won't want to put down.

Streets Ahead

The author is a ‘Townie’ who has, throughout his life, chosen to avoid rural situations. In his interest in ART, he has felt that less attention has been paid to works related to city areas than they deserve. This book is an attempt to rectify this situation.

Notebook of an [Un]Successful Musician

 Zdenek Bruderhans started learning piano at eight and flute at fifteen years of age. At twenty, he became flautist in the opera orchestra of the Prague National Theatre. There were extremely limited contacts with the flautists outside Czechoslovakia, but, on the other hand, after WWII, Prague became a crossroad between East and West, and for some greatest artists (Richter, Gilels, Oistrach, Kogan, Rostropovic, Szeryng), Prague was the venue where they started their international career. Their art was an inspiration for the development of Bruderhans’ very individual style of aesthetics and playing. This style brought him an ‘absolute’ victory among five instrumental categories at the 1959 PJ International Competition; his debut LP for SUPRAPHON was also released by Columbia in the US and Japan, and in 1968, he represented the state label Supraphon and Czechoslovakia at MIDEM in Cannes, France, as one of the three performers.In 1968, he emigrated and after teaching in a Swedish institute, he was appointed as flute professor at the University of Adelaide, whilst continuing his solo performance touring and recording.Main repertoire interests are devoted to duo works with keyboards and unaccompanied flute repertoire. His discography and full-length recitals were highly acclaimed by critics. Other interests were development of new flute techniques, new insight in learning process and musical performance, all embodied in his three books (one in Czech) and discography, accessible at YouTube.“…memorable performance…wizardry…”—London, The Daily Telegraph“…in triomph en tous points…”—Bruxelles, La Revue de Disques“…magical sound which can often sound other-worldly… a joyous disc, for giving the chance what the flute can achieve…”—Musicweb International

My Life Photographing Royalty and the Famous

A fascinating insight into the real lives of royal figures, state leaders and Hollywood stars, through the eyes of photographer Reginald Davis - awarded an MBE in 2008 for his work. Reginald shares both his photographs and the experiences he had with his many subjects around the globe. The text reflects on the kindness of Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince Philip's sense of humour, the exotic Imperial world he was plunged into when photographing the Shah of Iran, his most difficult project with Princess Grace of Monaco, the beauty of Princess Paola of Belgium, the glamour of diamond-clad Sophia Loren, and much more. Reginald's work has graced the pages of most big media outlets, in this country and around the world. Now 92, he continues to release his pictures for publication worldwide from the precious library he started in the 1950s.  

Mick the Drum's Basic Drum Book

If you’ve always been drawn to, excited or inspired by the DRUMMER in the band, either live, on record or visually, and thought that you would like to be able to play the drums, this book is for YOU. If you’ve wondered how or where to get started, look no further. Regardless of age, follow the steps within, and soon you will share the magic enjoyed by all drummers – the SECRET of ‘3-Way Coordination’.

How To Photograph Garden Plants and Wildlife Through Four Seasons

Arnold Wilson is a professional biologist and an award-winning photographer, and both these skills are shown to their best advantage in How to Photograph Garden Plants and Wildlife through Four Seasons.As the title suggests, this book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of garden photography throughout the year. Its early chapters discuss the technical intricacies of the camera and the many models currently available, before giving an impressively practical overview of the vital, but often misunderstood, subject of photographic composition.The next four chapters cover each of the seasons in turn, explaining what techniques to use to get the best out of flowers and other plants and how to produce appealing and unusual action shots of garden wildlife.Throughout, Arnold Wilson very much practises what he preaches. The book is illustrated with over 200 of his magnificent photographs – becoming, in effect, a showcase for the glories to be found in a British garden.How to Photograph Garden Plants and Wildlife through Four Seasons is an indispensable guide for every nature photographer, from aspiring to accomplished.

Beyond The Face

Delve into the exquisitely creative mind of award-winning Australian make-up artist Chereine Waddell, as she reveals and conceals childhood memories re-constructed through over sixty unique make-up designs. Each mesmerising image captures distinct moments in time for the artist, who provides vivid descriptions of the emotional junctures that promoted the inspiration for the painting of each face. Intimate and emotive, Beyond the Face is a book for make-up artists, creatives or indeed anyone seeking a very real and raw stimulus for their own creative ignitions.

The Professional Approach to Sculpting the Human Figure

The Professional Approach to Sculpting The Human Figure is the first book by Andrew Sinclair MRSS SWAC, recognised as a master of world-class figurative sculpture.
It is based on Andrew’s ground-breaking Sinclair Method, as taught at The Sculpture School, which completely transforms the building and creation of Contemporary Realist sculpture. This method is revolutionising the approach to sculpture, also acting as a powerful source of knowledge, enabling students searching for excellence to become professional masters of their art.
This book deals with the foundations of good figurative sculpture and offers a profound understanding of measurement, anatomy, design and composition in an easy to understand format that will inspire established sculptors and beginners alike.
So if you want to raise your game and lift your sculpture talents to a professional level – this book is dynamite! Consider it food for the sculptural soul.

Past Sounds

This is a book about classical music – for people who say they love music “but don’t understand how it works”, as well as for performers and music students of all ages.
Proposing that deeper enjoyment begins with an understanding of music’s basic structures, the book describes how the simple template of earlier dance-songs was adapted by composers writing music for instruments. The instrumental sonata became one of the great formal frameworks of western music: in symphonies, concertos, chamber music and solo sonatas, it dominated concert music for some 250 years – yet it is little understood by many music lovers. To simplify this vast field, Past Sounds singles out for study “sonatas” for piano trio – piano, violin and ’cello. These instruments have well-contrasted and easily identifiable sounds, and as the story unfolds the reader is introduced to many rarely heard but beautiful works for piano trio.
This is a lively, clearly-written narrative as well as a handbook for subsequent listening. The book has two distinctive features. Firstly, technical terms are carefully explained, and for those not familiar with music notation, audio clips in an accompanying website reproduce the actual sound of the music described. Secondly, in a broad historical sweep from mid-18th to 20th centuries, the development of the sonata is followed in its context of contemporary arts and literature – demonstrating how the sonata idea of classical music well deserves to be understood and valued as a western cultural archetype alongside other great artistic and literary forms.

New Realism in Contemporary Israeli Painting

Art today can be whatever one wants it to be: a rotting cadaver, a photograph of someone else’s photograph, a banana… In this post-modern age of post-truth, of social media and the selfie, when everyone has a high-resolution digital camera at their fingertips, one wonders what would possess a talented artist to sit for days, weeks, often months, to paint a portrait of a friend or a landscape of home. Today, a group of 20 or so remarkable painters have revived a fascinating style of realistic painting, and in Israel of all places, where realistic art has never played any significant role. Their brand of realism is not mundane photographic realism, but rather it is an intensified sort of realism, a kind of hyper-realism. This book offers an initial explanation as to what these artists are doing, and how they are doing it.

My Tiny Black Book of Secrets

Technology is moving so rapidly in quantum leaps... 

I cannot even catch my breath following it

We get blindfolded when so entangled with the trivial

Do we ever stop for a bit and wonder, what kind of illusion we are living in...? 

A new hybrid species is evolving among us...

Smoothly numbing us...

Making us dependable

Less and less indispensable 

A.I. is catching up with us 

Are we ready? Scary but true 

Siri ends up being my best friend.